I’ve heard numerous times people around me commenting about how lucky I am to have never struggled with my body weight.This is true. From late teen years and into adult age my body weight has been pretty much consistent and within 118-120 Lb for my 5’6″ small bone frame (excluding times of my two pregnancies, of course). I’ve never gave it a second thought, but so many of my female friends keep asking me, how do I manage to stay slim throughout the years without visible efforts, I started thinking about it myself.
I would like to stress ,that I am not a doctor or a nutritionist. Anyone, who has medical problems, causing them to gain weight, should always consult with their medical care provider. My goal here is simply to share personal tips, that work well for me, in hopes somebody else can benefit from them as well.
Some people claim that tendency to gain weight runs in the family. I was always opposed to this opinion and considered my family picture perfect example of this assumption not being true. In fact, my parents and my older sister have been always overweight. When I took “23 and me”genetic test, one of the interesting facts ,I have found out from the health report, happened to be that I was born with 50/50 chance of becoming overweight, meaning genes are important to predict what kind of body you are going to have, but choices that you make in your day to day activities can overbalance your genetic weaknesses.
The important thing here is that you can and should fight some of the negative genetic tendencies that you have and this is all up to you.
That being said, the formula to keep healthy weight is simple and is not a secret to no-one : you should burn as much energy as you receive. If you need to loose weight you have to burn more energy than you receive. Keeping healthy diet and being active always helps. Drinking plenty of water, giving preference to plant based foods, etc – we all know these good tips for healthy lifestyle. The problem with most people struggling with excessive weight is that they tend to overeat and don’t know when to stop.
I am against strict, harsh, one sided diets. They hardly work .From so many people commenting on their experiences with diets, the only conclusion can be derived : if the person deprives herself of something, she develops more cravings – as a result , she tends to break the diet sooner than later.
If you are healthy in overall , you can achieve your healthy weight and maintain it .There are many successful stories. It may require more efforts from some people than from the others, but your goal is achievable. One important thing ,however, to consider is that healthy weight is not the same for different body types. Healthy weight is the one you body function the best with. This is when you are the most energetic, healthy and happy- and it differ from person to person.
The simple rule that I always follow is to eat only when you are really hungry (do not mix up hunger with thirst or with mental cravings for certain foods) and stop eating when your first-hand hunger is satisfied. Do not overeat! Period. Develop a habit of that. With time it becomes subconscious!
